Philadelphia Flyers' Wayne Simmonds, celebrates with teammates, from left, Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux (28) and Mark Streit (32) after scoring against the San Jose Sharks during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Feb. 3, 2014, in San Jose, Calif. less

Philadelphia Flyers' Wayne Simmonds, celebrates with teammates, from left, Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux (28) and Mark Streit (32) after scoring against the San Jose Sharks during the first period of an NHL ... more

Photo: George Nikitin, AP

Image 4 of 4

Flyers beat Sharks 5-2 with 4 goals in 3rd period

1 / 4

Back to Gallery

Blame could go to continued struggles with scoring, to goalie Antti Niemi or to a lack of intensity. But make no mistake, Monday's 5-2 loss by the Sharks to Philadelphia was a team effort.

"We broke the cardinal rule: When you get outworked and you get outnumbered, you're going to lose," head coach Todd McLellan said. "It's as simple as that. I don't have any other explanation or excuse for it."

The Flyers scored three times during a 2:45 stretch early in the third period to win in San Jose for the first time since November 1999. The Flyers also beat San Jose for the first time in 14 games overall since Dec. 21, 2000.

"They were harder than we were in all facets of the game," McLellan said. "It's disappointing. I thought we could bounce back after playing Chicago (a 2-1 shootout win Saturday), with a really good, hard effort against a team that competes hard, and we didn't get it."

Even-strength goals by Matt Read, Michael Raffl and Claude Giroux were enough to chase Niemi, who was both lucky and good during the opening 40 minutes when the Sharks nursed a 2-1 lead.

Things quickly fell apart early in the final period at the SAP Center, where the Sharks lost for the fourth time in 26 games and were held to a season-low 22 shots at home.

Read drove wide after Philadelphia won a defensive-zone draw, and his wrister from the far edge of the right circle changed direction after tipping off San Jose defenseman Matt Irwin's stick to beat Niemi stick-side at 1:11.

Raffl scored from the slot at 2:29 on a juicy rebound of Erik Gustafsson's shot from the left point.

And Giroux scored his 18th goal and chased Niemi in favor of Alex Stalock at 3:56 with a shot that was partially screened by San Jose defenseman Dan Boyle.

"It was a team-wide issue," McLellan said. "Yeah, Nemo's got to stop some of those, it's as simple as that. But even in the second period, we weren't the better team. We were playing with fire."

Niemi came up big during a second period dominated by the Flyers, who trailed 2-1 after 40 minutes despite a 19-13 edge in shots.

After Philadelphia scored first, rookie Matt Nieto tipped a cross-ice feed from Tommy Wingels past goalie Steve Mason 78 seconds into Nicklas Grossmann's interference minor in the first period. The strike snapped an 0-for-16 power-play drought by the Sharks over six games.

Nieto struck again at 12:32 at even strength for his first career multi-goal game. Brent Burns did the heavy lifting, outdueling Giroux for the puck in the corner, then sending a perfect backhand pass behind two other Philadelphia defenders. Nieto darted around Mason to score low on the forehand.

The Sharks had been 26-1-2 when leading after two periods. The Flyers responded by recording their 10th third-period comeback win of the season.